New rooftop solar systems in Sri Lanka can now be connected only under the Net Plus scheme, after the Energy Ministry closed the long-standing Net Metering and Net Accounting options to new applicants — a change the Energy Minister defends as a Cabinet decision and that engineers say turns household solar from a bill-eliminator into a monthly cost.
The shift is made under the National Electricity Policy, which the Cabinet approved and gazetted on 5 March 2026.
What changes
Under Net Metering, daytime units generated were deducted from units consumed at night. Under Net Accounting, solar output first offset household consumption and the surplus was sold to the Ceylon Electricity Board.
Under Net Plus, the Sunday Times reports, every unit generated goes directly to the grid through the CEB or LECO at a fixed feed-in tariff set by the Public Utilities Commission. The household then pays its own electricity bill as an ordinary customer. Generation and consumption become two separate accounts. New Net Plus agreements run for a maximum of 12 years.
Existing Net Metering and Net Accounting customers are unaffected and continue until their current agreements expire.
The Minister’s case
Minister of Ports, Civil Aviation and Energy Anura Karunathilake rejected claims the decision was arbitrary. “This is not the personal opinion of an individual or two or three persons. With the collective responsibility of the Cabinet, that letter was issued in accordance with the National Electricity Policy,” he said, according to EconomyNext.
His argument is a cost-shifting one. Because the grid cannot store daytime solar, the utility must buy expensive thermal power for the evening peak and recover it through tariffs. “Currently, there are only around 85,000 to 90,000 rooftop solar users under Net Accounting. Passing the additional cost incurred by that group onto 7 million electricity consumers is unfair,” he said.
He said the scheme is meant to push electric-vehicle charging and appliance use into daylight hours, and told the Sunday Times that revisions are already under discussion to “give further consideration to the consumer’s perspective” and add features to Net Plus. He put new capacity added since November 2024 at 1,500 MW and repeated a target of cutting electricity bills 30% by 2030.
The engineers’ case
Former CEB general manager M.R. Ranathunga said the feed-in rates do not cover what households now pay to buy power back. He gave the current rate as Rs. 23.11 a unit for small systems, falling to Rs. 17.11 for large installations with their own transformers, while domestic consumption above 180 units is charged around Rs. 100 a unit, with a fixed charge near Rs. 2,500 at about 300 units. A household that charges an electric vehicle could face a monthly bill approaching or exceeding Rs. 20,000.
On his figures a Rs. 1 million, 5 kW system earning about Rs. 12,000 a month — roughly Rs. 140,000 a year — takes about ten years to repay, against the “zero bill” households were promised. He asked why peak-hour power bought from consumers at Rs. 45.53 a unit is sold back at about Rs. 106, and called for interest-free loans and a limited monthly allowance of about 180 units under the old schemes.
Renewable energy specialist Ashoka Abeygunawardana said 5 kW on every household would represent about 25,000 MW and more than 35,000 GWh a year — three times current generation — but that no storage mechanism has been built, and criticised the siting of planned pumped-storage and battery projects. Former Bioenergy Association chairman Parakrama Jayasinghe alleged the rooftop sector was being handed to large companies. The Centre for Environmental Justice called for the PUCSL to be strengthened.
Sustainable Energy Authority chairman Prof. Wijendra J. Bandara said on Saturday that batteries were the fastest technology to deploy, that the government aims to cut battery taxes by 100%, and that a tender for storage on existing solar systems has closed.
Two cut-off dates, and a spelling split
The two outlets give different cut-off dates. EconomyNext says Net Plus applies to applications submitted after 21 September; the Sunday Times says Net Metering and Net Accounting are closed to systems connected to the grid after 11 September 2026. Neither reconciles the two, and they may describe different stages — submission versus connection — but no source says so.
EconomyNext does not date the Minister’s remarks; the Sunday Times places its version of them on Saturday, the same day as his briefing rejecting curtailment claims. EconomyNext spells his name Karunathilaka, the Sunday Times Karunathilake.
One figure in the Sunday Times account is internally inconsistent: the 10–40 kW band is given as Rs. 19.50 a unit in one sentence and Rs. 19.15 in the next.
